What Does “Speech” Mean?

Larry Alexander, University of San Diego School of Law, has published The Misconceived Search for the Meaning of ‘Speech’ in Freedom of Speech at 5 Open Journal of Philosophy 39 (2015). Here is the abstract.

In this (very) short essay, I establish these points: All speech is symbolic; any conduct can be used to communicate a message (i.e., symbolically); government’s purpose in regulating, and not a speaker’s intention to communicate, defines the realm of freedom of expression; and determining the value of speech has a denominator problem.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.